Mahmud of Ghazna

Mahmud of Ghazna

(mämo͞od`, gŭz`na), 971?–1030, Afghan emperor and conqueror. He defeated (c.999) his elder brother to gain control of Khorasan (in Iran) and of Afghanistan. In his raids against the states of N India, Mahmud, a staunch Muslim, destroyed Hindu temples, forced conversions to Islam, and carried off booty and slaves. Hindus especially abhorred his destruction of the temple to Shiva at Somnath in Gujarat. Mahmud's territorial gains lay mainly W and N of Afghanistan and in the Punjab. At Ghazna (see GhazniGhazni, city (1981 est. pop. 31,200), capital of Ghazni prov., E central Afghanistan, on the Ghazni River. Located on the Kabul-Kandahar trade route, Ghazni is a market for sheep, wool, camel hair cloth, corn, and fruit. The famed Afghan sheepskin coats are made in the city......Click the link for more information.), his capital, he built a magnificent mosque. His successors in the Ghaznavid dynasty, which Mahmud founded, ruled over a reduced domain with the capital at Lahore until 1186.

Bibliography

See biographies by M. Nazim (1931) and M. Habib (2d ed. 1967); C. Bosworth, The Ghaznavids (1973) and The Later Ghaznavids (1977).

8) The author's Ghaznawid background equally explains the original information we find about Ibn Sina's student al-Ma'sumi, which is that he was killed during the mass execution of so-called heretics and batinis by the troops of Mahmud of Ghazna in Rayy in 420/1029.

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